Session's End

The tumultuous second session of the 71st Congress which began Dec. 2, 1929, came to an abrupt and noisy conclusion late one evening last week. The House membership romped away to play local politics until the next regular session in December. President Hoover promptly recalled the Senate for a special session to consider ratification of the London Naval Treaty.

To secure adjournment the Senate had to humble itself before the President and the House on World War pension legislation (see p. 17) and cash for the National Law Enforcement Commission. With the House marking time for the Senate to catch up, Congressmen packed into the Senate chamber to watch the final riotous scenes there, to hear hostile Senators shout and roar their political hatred of the Hoover Administration.

When the session did cease, neither Vice President Curtis nor Speaker Longworth was present to close it ceremoniously in their respective chambers. Both had left town ahead of time to keep Fourth of July speaking engagements.

Work Done. In its second session the 71st Congress:

P: Revised the tariff.

P: Reduced by 1% the tax on 1929 incomes.

P: Increased Spanish War pensions.

P: Pensioned World War veterans.

P: Continued the National Law Enforcement Commission for another year on a $250,000 appropriation.

P:, Authorized a $144,000,000 rivers & harbors improvement program.

P: Denied William Scott Vare of Pennsylvania a seat in the Senate.

P: Ratified the French war debt settlement.

P: Reorganized the Federal Power Commission.

P: Extended the life of the Federal Radio Commission indefinitely.

P: Transferred Prohibition enforcement from the Treasury to the Department of Justice.

P: Enlarged the Federal highway construction program.

P: Doubled the Government's public building program.

P: Established a large-scale prison building program, a new parole system.

P: Confirmed Charles Evans Hughes as Chief Justice of the U. S., Owen Josephus Roberts as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.

P: Sent Gold Star Mothers on free trips to U. S. military cemeteries abroad.

P: Increased the White House police force.

P: Investigated: 1) lobbying; 2) Congressional campaign expenses; 3) Communists; 4) chain and branch banking; 5) naval aviation; 6) post office leases; 7) repeal of the 18th Amendment; 8) the Pure Food & Drug Administration (see p. 34).

Made the "Star Spangled Banner" the national anthem.

P: Reduced passport fees from $10 to $5.

P: Excluded from the Jones Law peddlers of a gallon or less of liquor.

P: Created bigger, better machinery to collect unemployment statistics.

P: Consolidated the Veterans Bureau, the Pension Bureau and the National Home for Disabled Veterans into a new Veterans Administration.

P: Established a Bureau of Narcotics in the Treasury Department.

P: Appropriated $4,850,000,000 to run the Federal Government through fiscal 1931.

Work Not Done. The House or Senate failed to complete legislative action to:

P: Modernize three battleships at a cost of $30,000,000.

P: Regulate interstate motor bus traffic.

P: Halt railroad mergers pending investigation of holding companies.

P: Try petty Prohibition offenders before U. S. commissioners.

P: Dispose of Muscle Shoals power plant by lease or Government operation.

P: Restrict the use of injunctions in labor disputes.

P: Put Mexican immigration on a quota basis.

P: Create a $150,000,000 public building fund to aid unemployment.

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